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PALMER’S GATE

Name: PALMER’S GATE
Author: Barry Varela
ISBN: 1-59643-073-7

by Barry Varela ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2006

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In 1972, though he’s lived in Palmers Gate, N.J. for three years, ten-year-old Robby still feels like the new kid. He has plenty of friends, but they’ve all known each other since kindergarten. Then Colleen Lardner moves into the house behind Robby’s. She is mostly silent and wears outmoded clothes. Robby’s classmates make fun of her, but Robby senses something wrong in Colleen’s house. He doesn’t know how to help her, and he begins to react violently when playing with his friends. He knows she needs rescuing even if he can’t put into words what she needs rescuing from. To save her he decides he must destroy her prison. At its start, Varela’s first novel is a well-constructed portrait of a confused child. Set in a time before children saw family abuse nightly on television dramas, Robby’s bewilderment is quite real. However, the abrupt conclusion, a violent one, feels contrived. If Robby had no trusted adults in his life, his actions at crisis might be more believable, but his choice is not right for the rest of the story. Not for every collection, but perhaps useful as bibliotherapy or for discussion. (Fiction. 11-13)

Pub Date: June 1, 2006

ISBN: 1-59643-073-7

Page Count: 112

Publisher: Neal Porter/Roaring Brook

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2006

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

- BOOK REVIEW
GIZMO
by Barry Varela & illustrated by Ed Briant

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DRIFTWHISTLER

A STORY OF DANIEL AU FOND

by Tom Shachtman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1991

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In the last of a trilogy, sea-lion Daniel au Fond achieves his heart's desires—gathering representatives of the 13 tribes of seagoing mammals, and finding Pacifica, where legend says his kind and humans once lived harmoniously together—only to discover that his quest has just begun. Constantly recalling his previous adventures (Beachmaster, 1988; Wavebender, 1990), Daniel evades oil slicks and other pollution; rescues some fellow sea mammals from captivity; and discovers, on the back of an ancient turtle, a map that leads him to a partly sunken island. In a vision, Daniel learns that his kind had once been captive even here, but freed themselves in a bloody long-ago rebellion; he then realizes that it's up to him to teach humans to respect all life. The author's indictment of our brutality to animals and of destructive environmental practices is on the mark, but the plot's a ritualistic mix of convenient turns and token conflict. The anthropomorphism of the various seals, sea otters, cetaceans, etc., further undercuts the immediacy of the message. Daniel's fans are likely to be disappointed by the vaguely articulated resolution. For a better-written, more compelling fantasy that considers the same themes, see Ruth Park's My Sister Sif (p. 675). (Fiction. 11-13)

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1991

ISBN: 0-8050-1285-0

Page Count: 146

Publisher: Henry Holt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1991

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

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LITTLE BROTHER

by Allan Baillie ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1992

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Driven by a slim promise of safety plus the hope of finding his older brother Mang, 11-year-old orphan Muong Vithy makes his way across hundreds of miles of war-torn Cambodia to the Thai border, relying on his wits and the kindness of strangers to stay alive, evading the dreaded Khmer Rouge, and finding at last a chance for a new life in a distant country. Having passed through modern Phnom Penh and ancient Angkor Wat and finding both equally haunted, Vithy reaches Thailand. There, he meets Betty Harris, an Australian doctor, and begins to search for his brother, the last member of his family seen alive. Finally giving Mang up for dead, Vithy agrees to go with Harris to Australia—where he joyfully finds his brother awaiting him at the Sydney airport. The atrocities and privations that make Wartski's Boat to Nowhere (1980) and other refugee stories so searing are kept offstage here; this is a milder narrative (with something of a fairy-tale ending), but Baillie keeps the plot moving and his characters are deftly drawn and believable. (Fiction. 11-13)